Posner smacks down Apple, Motorola and the U.S. patent system

Judge Richard Posner, one of the most distinguished legal minds in the United States, sounds absolutely fed up with Apple and Motorola Mobility for wasting his time with their patent suits. In fact, Posner was apparently so perturbed with the arguments from both companies that he said their cases should be dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be brought before a court again. Per GigaOm, Posner also tore into Apple and Motorola’s reasoning and was particularly incensed by Apple’s argument that unlocking a device with a finger tap infringed upon patented swipe-to-unlock technology because “a tap is a zero length swipe.” “That’s silly,” Posner replied. “It’s like saying that a point is a zero-length line.” Posner also recently posted a rant on his personal blog about the general failures of modern American institutions, including a patent system that he described as “dysfunctional.”